Human Dignity and Popular Sovereignty in the Mirror of Political Modernity: Some Themes in the German-Jewish Experience

The German-speaking Jewry’s encounter with modernity has long served as a paradigm both in Jewish historiography and in socio-cultural research about modernity at large. In this essay, I examine this "dialectic of modernity" in the writings of Rabbi Leopold Lucas and Moritz Goldstein. Although less well-known than many other towering figures from the same background, such as Scholem, Arendt, Benjamin and members of the Frankfurt School, in their writings one nonetheless finds significant themes and insights for our times. Particularly, Moritz Goldstein’s depiction of the psychology of the "eternal half-other" resonates today with the experience of Europe’s post-colonial "others," as they try to develop forms of identity beyond assimilationism into, and mimicry of, the dominant culture.